At Home In the Wilderness

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Tom Brown, Jr. was reared in the New Jersey Pine Barrens and brought up in the ways of the woods by his grandfather, a displaced Apache named Stalking Wolf. Today, he is one of our country's—leading outdoor authorities, author of The Tracker and The Searcher, and head of the largest tracking and wilderness survival school in the U.S. (for information, write Tom Brown, Jr., Dept. TMEN, Box 173, Asbury, New Jersey 08802). Knowing all that, you'll surely be as glad as we are that Tom has agreed to do a series of articles for MOTHER, in which he'll share his knowledge of how to survive—in comfort!—in the wilds. With the tracker's guidance, perhaps we can become more ...

A good shelter is the first
requirement for wilderness survival,
and Tom Brown's leaf hutwhich
can keep even a naked inhabitant
warm in the dead of minter is one
of the best. Tom's shelter is
constructed by ...

setting up a ridgepole ...

framing out the hut's sides with sticks ...

brush ...

and leaves ...

then securing the malls with more
branches.

When you're out collecting firewood, foraging for wild edibles, or plowing your fields, you can never be sure that you won't suddenly be faced with a situation in which your survival will depend upon your ability to make a shelter, find food and water, and build a fire. In fact, even if you're 'safely" ensconced in the security of a cabin, a farmhouse, or a city apartment, any number of natural or manmade disasters can force you to keep yourself alive by using only what is available in nature.

However, any person who knows how to provide his or her necessities, without having to depend on manufactured commodities, can endure even if a calamity severs all ties with the rest of society. And wilderness living abilities are particularly important assets for the alternative lifestylist, camper, sportsperson, or other nature enthusiast who enjoys spending time away from the trappings of civilization.

But good survival skills include much more than the capability merely to live through a disaster. They can also approach a pure art form, and help men and women enter into a deeper kinship with all of creation. Consider how rewarding it would be to be able to build a shelter from natural materials ...to make your own fire ...to gather, prepare, and preserve wild edible plants for their nutritive and medicinal value ...to find water where there seems to be none ...to stalk, hunt, and kill game with a bow and arrow made by your own hands from the materials around you, then to use every part of that animal, from the hoofs and hide to the bones and meat ...in short, to be able to eliminate your dependence upon civilization and purchased goods and do without even such basic items as matches, candles, and rope!